There is nothing new in online rip offs. In the first article I mentioned one of the easiest rips.
Being duped into writing articles on line for which you will not be paid is fairly usual. The site makes money from the ads around your article, and also, in many cases, from stealing your articles and publishing them on sites in other countries, in other languages.
As there are ‘thresholds’ meaning you will NOT be paid until you ‘earn’ a particular amount, and all such bookkeeping is done by the people who are robbing you, it is rather evident that the word ‘trust’ can not be used in any context in regards to online writing.
Simply put, you have absolutely no idea how many people see your article, how much money is earned per view of your article.
You have to rely on the ‘honesty’ of the site owners, who are, if you didn’t figure it out already, are not very honest.